In May of 2014, the Scoop6 prize pool reached a record of £10,699,057, causing quite a stir in racing circles and in the wider betting community as a whole.
There was even national news coverage on the size of the pot given it had gone 12 weeks without being won; equalling another record first set back in 2008.
What’s more, it was worried that some of those winning punters could have mistakenly thrown away their tickets, since it took some around 24 hours to make their claims.
The first 5 units were quickly claimed, won by 3 different racing syndicates (one led by Bernard Marantelli, founder of Colossus Bets) and two high stakes Betfair punters, so it’s safe to assume that these bets were made online and claimed automatically.
The remaining 3 winning units were owned by betting shop customers, and 2 of them had a non-runner to thank for their fortunes.
One was a Betfred punter named Craig Brazier, a wheelie bin cleaner from Mansfield, another bet with Ladbrokes, and the third was a PaddyPower customer. Most chose to remain anonymous, but one of them, a 58 year old from Dundee, unbelievably said he was about to throw his ticket in the bin because he saw the horse he had bet on did not even place.
However, his horse, March, was a non-runner, so the animal had not placed because it had not raced in the first place.
Scoop6 rules state that in the event of a non-runner, your selection will be replaced with the favourite, and luckily for two of the punters, the favourite won that race.
A good job the fella from Dundee checked the non-runners list, or he would still be walking around none-the-wiser rather than having £1,342,600.00 in his pocket.
All winners had the chance to play for the bonus pot the week after two, and it was split between the three syndicates who all managed to correctly predict Top Boy as the winner, at 12/1.
How the Bet Was Won
Credit: gerald Flickr
The races in question were held at Catterick, Goodwood, and Haydock.
From race number 2, the 14:50 at Catterick, the pool was whittled down from 238,627 units to just 21,682, as Conry ran a good race to beat the joint favourites and a couple of other more fancied runners.
Five minutes later at Goodwood, Wee Jean surprised pretty much everyone by coming in at 8/1 and reducing the number of units still in the bet to 2,162.
With just 3 races run and the number of live bets decimated, it looked as though this could be yet another rollover week, but then Joyeuse won their race as the favourite at 3/1. By far the biggest percentage of the remaining pool had bet on Joyeuse, so 646 units went through to the penultimate race.
The 15:25 at Catterick was the scene for race 5, with the majority of the units resting on the shoulders of 3 horses, the joint favourites priced at 4/1, and the eventual winner, Johnny Cavagin, a fraction longer at 9/2.
Going into the last race at Haydock, there were 122 units remaining, and every horse had been backed, so it was now a certainty that someone was going to be winning the pot, it was just a question of who.
As we already know, only 8 units were on the eventual winner, Chatez, amounting to about 6.5% of the remaining units. At 7/1 the horse was certainly not the favourite, but managed to take the lead in the final furlong and hold it until the end.